Vampire Santa was more interested in making friends than sucking blood at the third annual Coast City Comic Con, held Nov. 9-10 at the Doubletree Hilton in South Portland.

The undead Christmas elf — aka New Hampshire-based actor Sal Lizard, who has been in a number of horror and comedy films over the years — was one of many characters, be they superheroes or villains, who walked the halls of the annual convention, now in its third year. Organizer Jarrett Melendez counted hundreds of attendees over the two-day event.

“We were at near fire hazard capacity for the Mystery Science Theater 3000 reunion panel,” said Melendez, now in his second year running one of the three “geek culture” conventions in Maine. “The Leatherface Chili Cookoff with Gunnar Hansen was a close second.”

Boba Fett, Iron Man, the Ghostbusters, Strawberry Shortcake, Daenerys Targaryen from “Game of Thrones” and Dr. Who and countless other cosplayers — people who dress up as characters from their favorite movies, comics and TV shows — were on display at the costume contest Saturday evening, as well as a panel discussion on cosplay on Sunday.

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Coast City Comic Con is organized by Melendez and the staff of Coast City Comics, a popular comic book and pop culture store on Congress Street in downtown Portland. Other panels at the weekend event included discussions on cartoon and comic drawings with Bob Camp, one of the creators of “Ren & Stimpy,” animators from the Cartoon Network show “Adventure Time,” and the creator of the Fox animated series “Axe Cop.”